Warnemünde Week: Danish dominance on the Baltic Sea, "slow motion sailing" around Bornholm
YACHT
· 09.07.2024
After the involuntary lull the day before, the Ilca classes took advantage of a light summer breeze from the east and plenty of sunshine for a beautiful last day of sailing on the Baltic Sea on their final Warnemünde Week day. The conditions provided the setting for two more races each. Andreas Krabbe-Christensen could have ended his Warnemünde Week campaign on Tuesday after finishing fourth in the first race of the day. By then he was already the early winner.
I always have good results in Warnemünde" (Andreas Krabbe-Christensen)
But the Dane held on. He was missing a race win in his series, which he would have liked to have achieved. "That was actually my goal at Warnemünde Week, unfortunately it didn't work out," said Andreas Krabbe-Christensen, who won the series after a total of six races with just 13 points in his account ahead of the American Daniel Escudero (24 points) and Ludvig Lindqvist (26 points) from Sweden.
The conditions were not easy at the end, reported winner Krabbe-Christensen: "It was completely different to the previous days, difficult with the different currents on the track. Fortunately, it worked out reasonably well for me with two fourth places. I always have good results in Warnemünde."
Anne-Marie Rindom motivated on course for Marseille
The Ilca 6 Olympic and world champion Anne-Marie Rindom took a nice motivational boost from the Warnemünde Week for the Olympic regatta from 28 July to 8 August in Marseille in her final sprint to the season highlight. The Dane sailed to four victories and two second places in the six races.
With her series, Anne-Marie Rindom also gave her compatriot Anna Munch no chance. Although she had started the series with two victories, she was unable to keep up with Rindom's class. Third place went to Monika Mikkola from Finland, who, like Rindom, completed her preparations for the Olympic Games with the Warnemünde Week. Both the Finn and the Dane are hoping to win a medal at the sailing competitions in Marseille, where they will also be up against the 2016 Olympic champion Marit Bouwmeester and other strong rivals.
Hannah Anderssohn puts her sailing career to the test
Hannah Anderssohn from Warnemünde, on the other hand, finished her race on her home turf without a happy ending. Her conclusion: "There were inconsistent wind shifts that I didn't catch well. Nevertheless, it was nice to sail at home again." For the time being, sailing has now taken a back seat for her.
"The examination phase of my mechanical engineering degree programme is coming up. I'm focussing on that now. I want to complete my Bachelor's degree next year. I will therefore also decide in the autumn whether and how to continue with my sailing career. It doesn't feel like I'm finished with it yet. But we'll see in the autumn." With places 20 and 44, she slipped to seventh place in the overall ranking of the Ilca 6.
There was a multinational podium among the Ilca 4 athletes. The Czech Jiri Tomes could only be displaced from first place on paper before the final. With a race win and a second place, he left no doubt about his superiority on the final day. However, there were still position changes behind him. The Turk Can Matias Gecer moved up to second place overall with a second place in the last race. The Cypriot Anatoli Zoubovski had to let him pass him with a one-point deficit, but was also happy about third place at the Warnemünde Week.
XL programme for the World Cup fleet, sea sailors at a crawl
The young Zoom8 sailors were challenged at their world championship on the sailing stage of the Warnemünde Week: they sailed three races. And here, too, a Dane initially dominated the action. Kare Thybo Kavin is clearly ahead of the two Estonians Laura Marii Taggu and Mia Maria Lipsmae. Kavin and Lipsmae are building on their strong results this season. In April, they both finished on the podium at the European Championships. The Zoom8 continues with two more races on Wednesday at 11am.
Meanwhile, things are going slowly on the race track. The Rund Bornholm long-distance race is suffering from the light breeze. On Tuesday evening, around 30 hours after the start, the "Illbruck" had reached the north-eastern end of the Danish island as the leading yacht and thus still had half of the 280 nautical miles ahead of her. As the smaller yachts are still travelling much slower, the finish time for the race was pushed back to 7 p.m. on Friday (12 July).
